I recently upgraded my lathes bought two new ones or newer ones, and had to buy two new chucks to suit .I read and read and bought two axminster 100mm super precision chucks with a whole set of useable jaws about eight pairs .I thought I was set up for the rest of my days when the suddenly and without warning stopped making the super precision chuck.What do I do? I feel a bit annoyed especialy when I had to make my own backplate for one of them.I asmmvery ploeased now that I bought all the jaws I did as I am in a way set up ok now for many years what should I do though if a chuck develops a fault? Alistair

-- excuse my typing as I have a form of parkinsons disease

6 replies so far

Good morning.I am sorry to hear of the discontinuation of the product you’ve bought, that situation can be very frustrating.Since you already have the chuck, and I just know it works like a dream, if you need accessories for it, I would recommend a visit to a local machine shop and just talk to them. I have a machinists background, and it comes in quite advantageous when I need a “thingie” in my woodshop.Now, to answer the questions you pose in the title of your thread, I bought my first Teknatool Nova chuck in or about 2000. I still have it, and it works great. Since that time, the Nova chuck has been improved, greatly in my mind, by standardizing the chuck key, using a ball nose allen wrench, and the addition of a back seal plate to keep out dust, even though wood dust has not yet slowed down my original. You see, I’ve bought two more Nova chucks, just to lessen the time spent changing chuck jaws. For instance, my original Nova is “permanently” set up with the cole jaws for reverse work. Chuck #2 is set up with the standard 50mm jaws and rarely they ever get changed. Chuck #3 is set up right now with the large 100mm bowl jaws, but, it gets changed regularly if I need the spigot jaws or the pin jaws, or anything else that might come down the pike.If I ever have a need to, I will buy another Teknatool Nova.I do not work for, or represent Teknatool. They just make an awesome product.rookie

This is an interesting subject and thinking about it makes me ask the following. Has anybody (say a magazine) done a study to see whose jaws are compatible with other brands of chucks? I know that a lot of companies make them so that only their jaws will fit their chuck, but if they made them compatible with others, woodturners might buy the body or the jaws because they already have a compatible jaw set or body. Now having asked this I’ll make an observation. My first really wood designed chuck was a Oneway stronghold. I liked it so well I later bought another and then a third. My complaint is that somewhere along the line Oneway changed chuck keys and so my older chucks require one key and my newer ones require another. Not a real big problem but the other complaint about Oneway strongholds is that the sizes of their jaws don’t overlap. In other words it is possible to have a piece of stock that is too big for one set of jaws and too small for the next size larger. I do not have this problem with my Penn state Barracuda 4. I still like both brands but the Oneway would be nicer if the jaws overlapped. Oh one other thing Oneway has a HUGE selection of adaptors so it’s almost impossible to have a lathe that Oneway cannot fit. All things considered they are both wonderful capabilities to have in the woodshop. Keep turning. Bob

Alistair, I am old school and never have used a chuck for vessel turning. I have relied on the old John Read system with a central hub and face plates that screw onto the hub. It allows you to leave the plate on the work and work on another piece. You are only limited to the number of face plates of various sizes that you own that can be screwed onto the hub. You can buy hubs for each size lathe shaft you own and the face plates are universal. Unfortunately I see that since John Read’s passing, the patent has been sold and they have gone out of production and I am now limited to Craft Supplies Co. in Utah. because woodcraft no longer stocks the system. So I have been buying up the face plates as I can. they came in 3,4,and5” sizes. I have never used a chuck . I understand from friends that they all preferred the Axminster system, they will be sorry to see that it is now going to be difficult to get jaws etc. It is a made in England system isn’t it ? I would think the chuck itself should last for a long time, but I know very little of such things..just too old I guess ! Good luck my friend ! and I hope you have enough jaw sets to keep you in business for some time. Take care of yourself , your North Florida friend don schneider, porchfish studio…P.S. almost finished building Model #2 of the Snappy-Ass tool Co. lathe ! I’ll post a photo or two when it is complete !

-- The pig caught under the fence is always the one doing all the squealing !